#Colonisation look like...
... spell checkers in communication software replacing the right Māori word with the wrong English word. It may be possible to add a Te Reo Māori dictionary to the spell checker, but it requires more knowledge of the operating system and apps.
@strypey did/does Maori have a script? I didn't find anything in Unicode.
@tetrislife
> did/does Maori have a script?
Was it written down before Europeans arrived and started writing it using the English alphabet? Not as such. Although I saw a presentation at a permaculture gathering that proposed interpreting Māori carving as a kind of pictographic writing system, akin to the early Chinese oracle bone script.
@strypey this is interesting. I am sure there are many languages without a script, but a language that was never written probably wasn't meant to be typed in either! That brings in voice messages. Or IPA phonetic codes, if native speakers find it tractable. Or a phonetic shorthand, if they find it readable.
@tetrislife
#TeReoMāori is easy to represent using English letters, as long as there is a way of putting macrons above the vowels (indicating a longer vowel sound). The problem I was pointing to in the OP is that devices sold in NZ default to English and spellcheckers see correctly spelled Māori words as incorrectly spelled English words. A decolonised tech industry would offer a choice of Māori or English on first use, and set up spellcheckers to use both Māori and English dictionaries.